The Olympic Medal Count: we need partial credit

August 21, 2008

One of the national pasttimes during the Olympics seems to be keeping track of where we are in the medal count. So far we’re atop China, but frankly I think the current score keeping mechanisms undercount how well we as a nation are doing. Time and time again during NBC’s coverage I hear commentators say “And here’s so-and-so of X. He/she trains at Y.”, where X is some random country and Y is nearly always a US university or training center. Ok, seriously people; how you can claim your nation has earned a gold/silver/bronze medal if we’re the ones training your athletes? So I think we (the US) should get partial credit in the medal count if the medal winner trains here. But we’re not greedy; we’ll split it with you, 50-50.

Of course, we’re willing to apply the partial credit rule equally. How many athletes from other countries train in China again?

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I’ve never been a rabid nationalist or medal-count obsessed when it comes to the Olympics anyway, but if possible I’ve become even less so for this exact reason. If I was smarter I would make some kind of thesis about globalism and porous boundaries and the construction of national identities in a rapidly changing world. Instead I’ll just assume that the previous bag o’ buzzwords suffices.